right now only 7% of the united states is covered in snow. that's even less than this time last year. when 32% of the nation was laced in winter white. not enough snow means no skiing. yet. this resort in washington state has had to wait. >> impatiently. to get our show on the road here. >> reporter: less snow helped make it warmer this past week. almost 700 record high temperatures have been set in the past five days. all of that will contribute to 2012 likely becoming the warmest on record in the lower 48. while one week or one season cannot tell a climate story, a longer range report card would released by noaa, the subject, the arctic, record were broken this year. in 2012 there was less know and more sea ice melting than they ever measured before. satellites started measuring arctic ice in 1979. since then half has disappeared. and just this year, 4 1/2 million square smiles melted, an area the size of the u.s. and mexico combined. >> melting on the greenland ice sheet is a beg concern. bah that is moving water that is currently, thawing